Judge Sonom, Ronald G.

Not hearing cases: nothing for over two years

Last hearing: October 20, 2006
Next hearing: none scheduled
Last decision: August 19, 2010

Courts worked at: 7

Worked here before

MIAMI — IMMIGRATION COURT1985—2006 · 22,326 hearings
NEW YORK — IMMIGRATION COURT1993—2002 · 53 hearings
DETROIT — IMMIGRATION COURT1998—2002 · 69 hearings
ELIZABETH — IMMIGRATION COURT2001—2001 · 20 hearings
NEW ORLEANS — IMMIGRATION COURT2000—2001 · 37 hearings
MEMPHIS — IMMIGRATION COURT1999—1999 · 14 hearings
GUAYNABO — IMMIGRATION COURT1995—1998 · 111 hearings

The periods overlap, and that is not an error: a judge hears cases at a new court while still closing out old ones at the previous one. Each row answers "when did this judge work here", not "from when to when did they serve here".

Status is derived from the court calendar: whether the judge has hearings scheduled after the release cutoff. The EOIR release carries no personnel data, so retirement, removal, elevation to the BIA and extended absence cannot be told apart — only what the data shows is stated here. Hearings are scheduled two to three years out, so an empty calendar for a working judge is rare; for judges who went quiet in the last few months it may still be an artifact of the cutoff, which lags by about a month. The lookup table's "active" flag is not used: it disagrees with the calendar for a third of judges.

17%

Asylum grant rate

of 1,873 decisions · FY1988–FY2010

95% interval: 15% — 19%

granted:: 316
denied:: 1,557

The period has closed

This judge no longer hears cases, so the figure describes FY1988–FY2010 — not what happens in the court today. Asylum rules and the mix of cases have changed since.

How this percentage is calculated

Grant rate = granted / (granted + denied). Administrative closures, withdrawals, abandonment and "not adjudicated" are excluded from the denominator. The unit of count is a decision per proceeding, not per application: applicants almost always file asylum, withholding and CAT protection together. Withholding and CAT grants are counted separately from asylum. U.S. fiscal year: October 1 – September 30.

How this compares

This judge17% (1,873)
The whole court — MIAMI — IMMIGRATION COURT19% (104,037)
All U.S. courts33% (1,350,724)

This comparison does not adjust for which cases a judge was given: judges see different nationalities, different shares of detained respondents, and different rates of legal representation. A difference in percentages does not by itself mean identical cases were treated differently.

Trend by fiscal year

U.S. fiscal year: October 1 – September 30.

Years with fewer than 10 decisions are not plotted (3): at that sample size the percentage is noise. They remain in the table.

Show as a table

Grant rate by fiscal year
Period	decisions	granted	95% interval
FY2006	84	15%	9% — 25%
FY2005	326	21%	17% — 26%
FY2004	304	17%	13% — 22%
FY2003	211	15%	11% — 20%
FY2002	190	16%	11% — 22%
FY2001	108	22%	15% — 31%
FY2000	97	18%	11% — 26%
FY1999	88	8%	4% — 16%
FY1998	99	22%	15% — 31%
FY1997	113	12%	7% — 19%
FY1996	136	11%	7% — 17%
FY1995	108	21%	15% — 30%
FY1994	5	0%	0% — 43%
FY1990	1	0%	0% — 79%
FY1988	3	0%	0% — 56%

By applicant nationality

Grant rate by nationality, largest volumes first
Nationality	decisions	granted	95% interval
HAITI	830	12%	10% — 14%
COLOMBIA	469	20%	17% — 24%
NICARAGUA	91	3%	1% — 9%
CUBA	85	38%	28% — 48%
PERU	73	19%	12% — 30%
VENEZUELA	45	16%	8% — 29%
GUATEMALA	42	14%	7% — 28%
EL SALVADOR	23	9%	2% — 27%
CHINA	19	21%	9% — 43%
ALBANIA	18	50%	29% — 71%
GUYANA	17	6%	1% — 27%
PAKISTAN	17	35%	17% — 59%
HONDURAS	16	0%	0% — 19%
Former Countries	10	40%	17% — 69%
ARGENTINA	8	0%	0% — 32%

How long a case takes

How long it took from service of the NTA to the decision on the application, for the cases this judge has already finished.

19 mo

median

half of cases: 13—26 mo

based on 1,873 cases

NTA-to-decision duration by fiscal year
Decided in	Cases	median	half of cases, mo
FY2006	84	24 mo	19—33
FY2005	326	26 mo	20—31
FY2004	304	23 mo	19—29
FY2003	211	20 mo	17—24
FY2002	190	18 mo	15—24
FY2001	108	17 mo	12—21
FY2000	97	14 mo	10—19
FY1999	88	10 mo	8—12
FY1998	99	12 mo	8—22
FY1997	113	13 mo	9—16

Duration runs from the NTA date (charging document served) to the decision on the application. Median, not mean: the distribution has a long right tail. Cases decided this year may have begun a decade ago, so duration by year of decision is not a forecast for a case filed today.

The queue

Cases with no decision yet. A different figure from the duration of completed cases: quick cases leave the queue first, so the long ones accumulate among those still waiting.

No undecided cases in this release.

What became of appeals to the BIA

An immigration judge's decision can be appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals. This is what the Board did with those appeals. A high share of reversals and remands tells a different story than a low grant rate alone.

What became of appeals to the BIA
BIA decision	Appeals
Dismiss Appeal/Affirm IJ's Decision	702
Summary Affirmance	491
Denied	449
Remand	296
Dismissed (Grant V/D 30 days)	107
Summarily Dismiss	81
Deferred Enforced Departure	58
Termination	56
Lacks Jurisdiction - BIA	55
SUMMARY AFFIRMANCE/VD	49
Granted	36
Other	35
Withdrawal of Appeal	33
Dismiss as Untimely	26
Dismissed (Voluntary Departure Granted)	22
Terminate-DHS PD	21
Temporary Protected Status	21
Sustain	9
Dismiss Soriano	8
SUMMARY DISMISSAL - BOTH (a) & (e)	7
Continued	6
Grant with no Remand	6
Summary Dismissal (e) no brief	5
Summary Dismissal (a) inad reason on appeal	4
Background Check Remand	4
Rejection	3
Denied Soriano	2
Other Soriano	1
Administrative Return	1
Dismissed as Moot	1

Data comes from the monthly EOIR Case Data release (U.S. DOJ FOIA Library). This service is not affiliated with the U.S. government and does not provide legal advice. The data lags by roughly a month; for current case status use ACIS and Respondent Access. The source is known to have missing records, including relief applications — absent data does not mean it is absent from your case.